dirty realism

British  

noun

1. a style of writing, originating in the US in the 1980s, which depicts in great detail the seamier or more mundane aspects of ordinary life

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Other Word Forms

• dirty realist noun

Example Sentences

The frank jocularity of the wisecracks bumps up against rogue jolts of cutesiness and a slightly dirty realism, familiar from Sundance dramedies.

From The New Yorker • Sep. 5, 2018

That more or less sums up the aesthetic of “Preacher,” which packs apocalypse, horror, religion, dirty realism and dime-store westerns into its glass jar, then sets the whole bloody mixture on purée.

From New York Times • May 20, 2016

His art shares the dirty realism of the novelists Flaubert and Zola.

From The Guardian • May 22, 2015

His stories oscillate between the biting and absurd writing of George Saunders and the dirty realism of Tobias Wolff.

From Washington Post